Community spirit wins as National Games close

Heavy rain fails to dampen 5,000 celebrating end of friendly contests

By Tessa Wong, The Straits Times, 10 Sep 2012

DESPITE the rain, about 5,000 participants turned up at Bishan Stadium last night for the closing ceremony of the inaugural Singapore National Games.

The ceremony capped nine days of friendly competition, which saw residents from 15 clusters - or neighbourhoods - islandwide compete in 10 sports, from sepak takraw to swimming.

The initiative was organised by the Singapore Sports Council, the People's Association (PA), community sports clubs and national sports associations to promote community bonding.

Teams had to show a good mix in terms of age, race and housing type, and there were caps on the number of foreigners and national players.

Yesterday's ceremony was attended by President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Cabinet ministers Khaw Boon Wan, Lim Swee Say and Chan Chun Sing.

It got off to a wet start - the rain delayed it by about an hour.

But once the rain cleared, the crowd was treated to performances by cheerleaders and a final round of games. In the giant bowling event, teams had to roll giant inflatable balls across the field.

Mr Lim, who is also deputy chairman of the PA, said the games were special. "Because it is not just about winning competitions and medals, it is about bonding people, bonding communities through sports," he said.

Dr Tan presented trophies to the clusters that won in the Sports Challenge and Community Challenge categories.

Although Ang Mo Kio had taken the lead earlier in the medal tally, the winner of the Sports Challenge turned out to be Choa Chu Kang, with 68 medals. Ang Mo Kio followed with 66.

Said Mr Patrick Teo, head of the Choa Chu Kang delegation: "It was a really intense competition. At one point, we were neck and neck with Ang Mo Kio in the medal tally. But we also sent in as many participants as we could."

Clusters were awarded points not just on performance, but also on the number of participants. Choa Chu Kang had 383, while Ang Mo Kio had 368.

In the Community Challenge, which judged how well-decorated the competition venues were and the quality of the cheerleading groups and resident outreach, the winner was Sembawang.

PA chief executive director Yam Ah Mee, who described the event as a huge success, said that based on feedback from residents, organisers would look into expanding the number of sports for the next edition of the games in 2014.

They would also consider scheduling more events on weekends so that more people could attend.